of nature, the rise and effects of superstition and tyranny, and the restoration of true religion and just government, all these ought to be mentioned as passages that deserve high applause; nay, as some of the most exalted pieces of English poetry.

38. Man walk'd with beast, joint tenant of the shade.*

LUCRETIUS, agreeably to his uncomfortable system, has presented us with a different and more horrid picture of this state of nature. The calamitous condition of man is exhibited by images of much energy, and wildness of fancy :

-Sæcla ferarum

Infestam miseris faciebant sæpe quietem :
Ejectique domo fugiebant saxea tecta
Setigeri suis adventu, validique Leonis,
Atque intempestâ cedebant nocte paventes
Hospitibus sævis instrata cubilia fronde.

He represents afterwards, some of these wretched mortals mangled by wild beasts, and running distracted with pain through the woods, with their wounds undressed and putrifying:

At

* Ver. 152.

At quos effugium servârat, corpore adeso,
Posterius tremulas super ulcera tetra tenentes
Palmas, horriferis accibant vocibus Orcum;
Donicùm eos vita privârunt vermina sæva,
Expertes opis, ignaros quid volnera vellent.*

Pain is forcibly expressed by the action described in the second line, and by the epithet tremulas.

39. The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest, Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest.†

The effect of alliteration is here felt by the reader. But at what period of time could this be justly said, if we consider the very early institution of sacrifice, according to the scripture account of this venerable rite?

40. Ah! how unlike the man of times to come!

Of half that live the butcher and the tomb
Who, foe to nature, hears the gen❜ral groan,
Murders their species, and betrays his own.

;

OVID, on the same topic, has nothing so manly "Hears the general groan," is

and emphatical.

† Ep. iii. 157.

H 2

* Lib. v. ver. 991.

Ep. iii. 161.

nobly

nobly expressed; and the circumstance of betraying his own species, is an unexpected and striking addition to the foregoing sentiment. Thomson has enlarged on this doctrine, with that tenderness and humanity for which he was so justly beloved, in his Spring, at verse three hundred and thirty. Our poet ascribes the violence of the passions to the use of animal food.

But just disease to luxury succeeds,

And every death its own avenger breeds.*

41. Thus then to man the voice of nature spake,

66

Go, from the creatures thy instructions take;

"Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;
"Learn from the beasts the physic of the field.Ӡ

The prosopopoeia is magnificent, and the occasion important, no less than the origin of the arts of life. NATURE is personified also by Lucretius, and introduced speaking with suitable majesty and elevation; she is chiding her foolish and ungrateful children for their vain and impious discontent:

* Ver. 165.

† Ep. iii. ver. 171.

Quid

Quid tibi tantopere est, mortalis, quod nimis ægris
Luctibus indulges? quid mortem congemis, ac fles?-
Aufer abhinc lacrymas, barathro et compesce querelas.

There is an authoritative air in the brevity of this sentence, as also in the concluding line of her speech; and particularly in the very last word : ፡፡ Equo animoque, agedum, jam aliis

concede :-necesse est."*

42. Thy arts of building from the bee receive; Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave.t

The Romans have left us scarcely any piece of poetry so striking and original, as the beginning and progress of arts at the end of the fifth book of Lucretius. I shall at present confine myself to transcribe his beautiful account of the rise of music.

H 3

At

* Lib. iii. ver. 975.

↑ Ver. 175.

The Persians, it is said, distinguish the different degrees of the strength of fancy in different poets, by calling them, painters or sculptors. Lucretius, from the force of his images, should be ranked among the latter. He is, in truth, a SCULP TOR-POET; His images have a bold relief.

At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore

Ante fuit multo, quam lævia carmina cantu
Concelebrare homines possent, aureisque juvare,
Et zephyri cava per calamorum sibila primum
Agrestes docuere cavas inflare cicutas.
Inde minutatim dulceis didicere querelas,
Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum,
Avia per nemora, ac sylvas saltusque reperta,
Per loca pastorum deserta, atque otia dia.*

43. He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the food,
Taught to command the fire, controul the flood,
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound,
Or fetch the aerial eagle to the ground.†

A finer example can, perhaps, scarce be given of a compact and comprehensive stile. The manner in which the four elements were subdued, is comprised in these four lines alone. POPE is here, as Quintilian says of another, densus et brevis et instans sibi. There is not an useless word in this passage: there are but three epithets, wondering, profound, aerial; and they are placed precisely with the very substantive that is of most

* Lib. v. ver. 1378.

1:

consequence;

† Ver. 219.

We have here what Dionysius says of Alcæus, ndu μeta SEVOTNTOS, "Sweetness with strength." Edit. Sylburg, p. 69. δεινότητος, tom. ii.